Great War truck

That was fascinating. Thanks.

Sold for £150,000 to a UK collector so I hear. Don't know who he was though. I hope that it is staying in the UK. Sounds like it is safe for now.

It is very interesting to see what turns up. I have heard rumours of several surviving early vehicles and it is great to finally see photos of them. We have heard of another Autocar in Bristol which I would love to see a photo of. I have been told of an Autocar engine being listed up for sale but could not find the advert. There are several FWD's which have gone to ground as well and would love to see them.

That's interesting. Not seen that one before. All four wheels steer too! What year was it photographed? I had heard a rumour of another surviving Quad with the owner insisting that his was the only one in the UK. I wonder if it is that one? I think that there are four altogether. Two Jefferys and two Nash. Thanks for posting that. Tim

This now completes the work for the “Axminster Division” on the Drag Link and the whole Drag Link assembly will now go on to the “Leicester Division” for final machining and brazing there to complete the job.

Then the shaft has to be drilled 3/4” and then bored 7/8” to take the male part of the Ball Socket. The shaft has to be slightly tapered at this end on the outside and that was machined at the same time.

Simple machining to deal with the new casting to get it down to 7/8” diameter! Four Jaw chuck and centre to start with – then reversed and held in a Collet Chuck to face off the back.

The first thing to do was to make up a pattern of the rear part of the Ball Socket Case for the Foundry – fortunately we have a front part of a Case from elsewhere which will live to fight again so that we do not have to make up one of those from scratch. The new casting is shown alongside the pattern.

Turning now to the rear end of the Drag Link and the Ball Socket, you will see from these three pictures that the original Ball Socket is really beyond recovery and that we must make a replacement for this one as well.

Thanks Richard That is just what I need. No it was not me, sadly. But it was purchased by a friend, so I will pass the link on to him. Hope to see the DUKW soon and give it a good look over. The consensus is that it was in far better condition than it appeared, but we will see. Tim

Can anybody please point me in the direction of a DUKW manual pdf which I can download for free? Thanks Tim

The two large holes then have to be joined up to complete the slot The last job to do on this is to “plane in the 1/4” inside slot to accommodate the “pins” on the sliding sockets. It will have to go to Steve for that job as he has the tooling to do that.

Anybody make this auction? I heard that the vehicles were generally in a poor state and some went for next to nothing and straight to the scrap man.

The next job was to cut out the slot through which the Ball Joint goes. This was drilled out to 3/4”first of at each end of the slot and then those holes were opened up with a Boring Head to the final diameter

This pictures shows the “innards” that were recovered from the old sleeve and which can be used again – two springs and the two sliding sockets which encapsulate the ball.

The Bar was then turned around so that the other end could be drilled and bored out and a taper machined on the outside.

With the revolving centre removed from the tailstock, the bar was then supported with a Steady so that it could be drilled and bored out to its final internal diameter.

The thread was finished off with a Chaser and a trial fit of the Cap was satisfactory.

The new Sleeve is machined up from a piece of 2 1/2” Diameter steel bar. It was turned down to size and first screw cut to take the cap.

One of the Instow DUKW's. I understand that the remainder are due to go to Withams soon. The last of the WW2 MV's still in service with the military in this country at least?

Hi Keith Yes, the second one is a Peerless as well. I must say that I like the positioning of the shovel on the first Peerless. "Now stay there you b*****d"!

Progress has been rather slow of late with Steve very much involved with the building of his new garage and with Tony looking after other obligations! Tony has now picked up the Steering bits again – we were fortunate when we obtained the Thorny chassis from under the Shepherds Hut that nearly all of the steering was still in place – the exception was the Steering Wheel as that had been cut off – taking the top part of the steering column with it! Although the other parts were still in situ, they were mainly highly rusted and wasted away so although they provided patterns they were beyond redemption. The Drag Link consists of three separate parts – the two ends were brazed to a 1 1/2” steel tube. The front part is described as the “Outer sleeve over the spring ball joint” and the rusting and wasting of this was so great in places that all of that steel had gone revealing the original brazing in some places that held the bits together. This must be replaced but the original Cap on this sleeve is good enough to use again.

There are no restrictions on what we do other than stay off the motorway which has a 50mph minimum limit. Sometimes people get a bit grumpy and do something stupid. One idiot overtook us once and then slammed on the brakes once he got in front of us so we nearly hit him, but I can only think of only that one occasion. Most of the time people just get on with it. Some smile, some don't. Steve taught me a valuable lesson in just smiling and waving at people who look angry rather than shouting back at them.

You have not bought a second one have you? Tim

One of two perhaps? Well done mark. Super finds.